By Lee Zachariah
Many challenges faced Rolf de Heer’s long-time collaborator James Currie when he came to record the sound on Ten Canoes. Given all the characters were to be naked and trudging about in swamps, traditional methods of sound recording were no longer applicable.
“Rolf came up with the idea of using MP3s,” Currie says. “So a stack of MP3 recorders/players with cheap recording heads attached were purchased and various combinations trialled over a series of months.”
The commercially-available MP3 players were then taken to the University of Adelaide, where they were carefully modified by the engineering department.
“The MP3 players and microphones were tested and designed only to capture difficult to retrieve dialogue; for example, when the actors were standing in bark canoes in the middle of the swamp or river, [or] in situations that otherwise would have not been available with the standard recording methods.
“The canoes were unstable, and as a result we did lose a number of MP3 players and microphones due to unfortunate sinkings and falls.”
Most films would relegate such scenes to post-sync sessions, where the actors would re-record their dialogue in a soundproof booth many months later. But the unique nature of Ten Canoes meant this would not be possible.
“Post sync was out of the question,” says Currie, and not just because of budgetary considerations. “We were dealing with an indigenous group of actors in the heart of Arnhem Land; acting and the art of make believe was natural for them, but flying to the big city for a post sync session with unscripted storytelling dialogue would have been a very tough call indeed.”
Each actor was fitted with a small microphone rig and an MP3 recorder. The recorder held a battery that could record for up to eight continuous hours per day.
The placement of the microphones on an all-naked cast required a great deal of creativity. Five of the actors carried small, traditional bags around their necks, in which the recorders and microphones were concealed. The remaining fifteen actors had the microphones hidden in hairpieces that were attached to the right side of their heads.
With up to eight hours of recorded material for each individual actor, syncing markers were essential. A loud hooter was sounded at the beginning of the day’s shooting, in case any of the actors were a long way from the slate.
Though the method of recording was said by some to be “Altmanesque”, Currie never consciously made the connection. With each film’s unique circumstances come unique methods for overcoming problems.
“Each film,” he notes, “is a new being.”
This article was originally published in the June 2009 issue of INSIDEFILM. Check out the upcoming sound and music feature in the March edition next month.